5.  The applicants were born in 1957 and 1971 respectively. They live in Kyiv.
6.  On 18 February 2000, formal charges were brought against the applicants and two co-suspects, Mr T. and Mr K., in connection with the kidnapping of a child earlier that month. Although the child's parents had received ransom demands, the perpetrators had released the child without a ransom having been paid to them.
7.  On 21 February 2000, the second applicant and, on 22 February 2000, the first applicant were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the kidnapping.
8.  On 7 June 2000, while the case was still at the pre-trial stage, the investigator decided to discontinue the criminal proceedings against the applicants under the Amnesty Act of 11 May 2000 and ordered their release. Two other suspects, Mr T. and Mr K., were committed for trial in July 2000.
9.  On 17 August 2000 the Darnitsky District Court of Kyiv (hereafter “the Darnitsky Court”), composed of a single judge, Mr B., allowed a motion by the victims' representatives for a further investigation to be carried out. The Darnitsky Court held that the abduction of the child was exacerbated by extortion, a more serious criminal offence, which was not covered by the amnesty. The investigating authorities had failed to establish who exactly called the child's parents and demanded a ransom. In that respect it noted that the first applicant had stated that he did not know who had done that. The Darnitsky Court suggested that the authorities should verify the truthfulness of this statement by means of voice identification. The court further stated:
“The indicated insufficiency and incorrectness of the pre-trial investigation cannot be remedied in the trial proceedings; moreover, the case-file contains grounds for laying charges of the more serious offence of extortion against the defendants and [the applicants]...
The Kyiv Prosecutor shall decide on the lawfulness of the decisions ... of 7 June 2000 to terminate the criminal proceedings against [the applicants] ... since their actions suggest that they were involved in committing the more serious offence of extortion. Their actions, in the court's opinion, should be qualified by a cumulation of the crimes ...
Depending on the outcome [of the additional investigations] [the authorities] should resolve the question of the legal qualification of the acts committed by each accomplice to the offence. If the decision to discontinue the criminal proceedings against [the applicants] is revoked, [the authorities] should charge them anew and choose in accordance with law a preventive measure corresponding to the gravity of the offence.”
10.  On 22 October 2000 the investigator rearrested the applicants.
11.  On 24 October 2000 the Deputy Kyiv City Prosecutor ordered their detention.
12.  On 8 November 2000 the applicants filed an appeal against the prosecutor's detention order with the Moskovsky District Court of Kyiv (“the Moskovsky Court”).
13.  On 10 and 13 November 2000 and 4 January 2001 the Moskovsky Court unsuccessfully requested the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office to provide it with the case file, which was the ground for the decision to arrest the applicants.
14.  On 16 November 2000, in the presence of an investigator, the child's father recognised the recorded voice of the first applicant as the voice of the person who had called to demand a ransom.
15.  On 20 November 2000 the pre-trial investigation was completed and the applicants were given access to the case file.
16.  On 10 January 2001 the Moskovsky Court referred the letter to the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, requesting it to take measures in respect of the failure of the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office to dispatch necessary case file.
17.  On 15 January 2001 the Moskovsky Court was informed that the pre-trial investigation in the applicants' case had been completed on 20 November 2000.
18.  On 17 January 2001 the Moskovsky Court, in the absence of the applicants and their lawyer, discontinued the proceedings on the applicants' appeal against the prosecutor's detention order on the ground that, according to Resolution no. 10 of the Plenary Supreme Court of 30 September 1994 (see paragraph 34 below), the pre-trial investigation in the case had been completed.
19.  On 13 February 2001 the prosecutor sent the applicants' case file together with the bill of indictment to the Darnitsky Court, which, later still, held a preparatory hearing, at which it found that the case was ready for trial and ordered the applicants' detention pending the proceedings.
20.  The trial was held before Judge B., sitting as a single judge at the Darnitsky Court. On 20 March and 16 July 2001 the applicants challenged Judge B. before the President of the Darnitsky Court, arguing that on account of his previous involvement in the proceedings he had already formed a preconceived opinion on their guilt of extortion. On 20 March and 23 July 2001 the President of the Darnitsky Court refused the applicants' requests, noting that their reasoning as to the alleged bias of Judge B. could not serve a ground for his replacement.
21.  During the hearings the court granted several requests by the applicants for additional witnesses to be heard and certain investigative actions to be conducted. At the same time, the court dismissed the applicants' requests for it to hear the owner of the flat the child had been held in before his release, to establish the identity of an unknown individual who had allegedly forced the first applicant to commit the abduction and to examine the tapes of the telephone conversations made by the Security Service in the course of the search for the child. The court found that the proposed evidence was irrelevant to the case, holding, in particular, that the recording of conversations on the child's parents' telephone line had been commenced after the call with ransom demands had been made, and thus the tapes at issue had no evidential value.
22.  On 3 January 2002, the Darnitsky Court, composed of Judge B., found the applicants guilty of extortion and unlawful deprivation of liberty. The Darnitsky Court relied, inter alia, on the applicants' and their co‑defendants' partial confessions (they acknowledged having abducted the child, but denied having demanded a ransom, that is, committing extortion), the statements of the child and his father and the results of the voice identification. The first applicant was sentenced to ten and the second applicant to nine years' imprisonment.
23.  The applicants filed appeals against this judgment. They maintained, inter alia, that the manner in which the voice identification had been carried out was unlawful and challenged the impartiality of Judge B.
24.  By decision of 21 June 2002 the Kyiv City Court of Appeal (hereafter “the Court of Appeal”) upheld the judgment of 3 January 2002, finding, inter alia, that the voice identification had been carried out in accordance with the relevant procedural legislation.
25.  The applicants appealed in cassation, repeating their arguments made before the Court of Appeal. Neither the applicants nor their lawyer filed a request under Article 391 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (see paragraph 38 below) to attend the cassation hearing.
26.  On 10 April 2003 the Supreme Court, in absence of the applicants and their lawyer, but in presence of the prosecutor, rejected the applicants' appeal in cassation and upheld the decisions of the lower courts.
27.  Neither the Court of Appeal nor the Supreme Court addressed in their decisions the issue of the impartiality of Judge B.
28.  On 17 February 2000 the second applicant was arrested by the police for swearing in public. Immediately after the arrest he was allegedly questioned about his involvement in the above-mentioned kidnapping. According to him, from 17 to 25 February 2000 he was continuously subjected to ill-treatment by the police officers.
29.  On 18 February 2000 the Darnitsky Court sentenced the second applicant to ten days' administrative arrest for petty hooliganism.
30.  On the same day the second applicant was seen by his wife and a Mr Sh. in the police station.
31.  On 10 September 2002 the Darnitsky District Prosecutor's Office received a complaint by the second applicant alleging ill-treatment by the police on 18 to 25 February 2000.
32.  On 21 September 2002 the Darnitsky District Prosecutor's Office decided not to institute criminal proceedings into the second applicant's allegations of ill-treatment. This decision was based on the statements of the three police officers concerned, who denied ill-treating the applicant, and the evidence of Mr Sh., who said that when he had seen him on 18 February 2000 the second applicant's fingers were swollen, but there were no other injuries. The second applicant appealed.
33.  On 23 March 2004 the Darnitsky Court found that the preliminary inquiry had been adequate and sufficient and that no further investigations were required. On 26 May 2004 and 31 May 2005 respectively the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court upheld this decision.